Tomb Raider  The Flames of the Dead
by TheRealAugustus
Summary: A lara croft story. Not reccomended for any of you younger readers, as its somewhat dark. In this story, lara discovers her most dangerous and powerful artifact yet, and gets thrown into a battle between the fabrics of life.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The darkness swam over her like a black veil, it was as if every inch of the catacomb had fell into the empty night sky. Lara took a deep breath; she was used to ancient trickery such as this, and never let it overcome her. She reached for her Personal Light Source which was firmly gripped onto the front strap of her backpack, as she pressed the device; the walls of the thin corridor were immediately illuminated. Lara noticed the unlit torches that were sitting on the top of the shelves above her.

She continued down the route, somewhat anxious about this new found abnormality, as her years of raiding tombs has taught her, light disappearing for seemingly no reason was never a good sign. As she walked she held her pistol at the side of her waist next to its holster, she wished that the light extending from her PLS was perhaps a little more powerful, as it only managed to show her the edges of the corridor a few feet in front of her, leaving the rest to the imagination.

Eventually, through the light of the PLS and darkness up ahead, she saw a greyish white glow floating far ahead of her, almost reminiscent of a ghost. Although Lara was tempted, she was not reckless enough to run the rest of the way up to the source of this mystery, but she did quicken her pace and extended her arm to bring her gun steadily in front of her.

As she got closer and closer to the glow, the air around her seemed to become denser, it felt as though she was being plunged into deep water. When she was only a few steps away from it, realising that there was no immediate danger, she holstered her pistol. The glowing object in question was still impossible to identify, it was about the same size as a child's hand, and was lodged into a crevice in the wall, however the light protruding from its body obscured all vision.

Lara leaned in, squinting her eyes, before she realised that her face was right up against the glow, it was then she noticed that the atmosphere was growing ever denser and she had begun to host a growing sense of impending doom at the pit of her stomach.

Suddenly a loud crashing sound echoed through the corridor, as if something extremely heavy had just dropped. The feeling in Lara's stomach intensified, it was fight or flight, and flight was not an option.

She grabbed hold of the mysterious object and attempted to yank it out of its place, but it seemed to be connected through a magnetic force to the wall. Lara wasn't giving up, she grabbed hold of it with both her hands, put her foot flat against the wall for extra strength, and heaved as powerfully as she could.

_Snap!_

The stone snapped out of the walls clutches, and Lara flew backwards with it.

_Click, Clack_

Just as she was picking herself up, the sound of mechanisms came from underneath her feet. The floor seemed to quickly be losing its strength, Lara had a split second to notice the seam running through the platform she was on before it split.

It took Lara all the bravery she could muster at this surprise situation to not scream, she fell down a pitch black and seemingly endless drop. She held the stone firm to her chest as she fell, curling into a ball position.

Before she knew it, her entire body suffered a hard collision against the bottom of the pit, and she heard the sickening sound of her bones being crunched, and her flesh torn apart.

She had a few seconds to see the blurred vision of the stone she had so powerfully battered against. But then her eyes closed of their own accord.

It was darkness, she was in deep slumber, no feeling or thought could ever pass through such an empty dead brain, nothing in the world mattered. Did time pass? It was impossible to tell, this could have started one second ago, or it could have started an eternity ago.

Then came light, it was tiny, miniscule, but extremely bright, and growing wider and wider.

Wider, Wider, Wider.


	2. The Tablet of Cleopatra

**Chapter 1**

_**Two weeks earlier**_

_**July 15**__**th**__** 2010**_

"Your mine now Lara!" Zip yelled across the room "You can't hide back there forever girl!"

Lara was crouched behind some arranged crates. She could Zip's approaching footsteps, and she had her gun at the ready.

"Damn" Lara muttered under her breath "how on earth did I get myself into this?"

The steps drew closer and closer, and Lara's breathing became heavier.

Without standing up, Lara lifted her gun above the crates, and shot blindly.

Zip's scream echoed across the room "My face!"

"That was anticlimactic, suppose I should be thankful for my luck though" Lara said.

"Lara! That hit my right in the face" Zip complained.

Lara walked over to him to admire the damage she had done.

"Oh, Zip" she said patronisingly "I'm sure you will survive, just go wash it off and don't open your eyes."

Admittedly, it was a bit more than Lara intended to do. The paint ball had hit Zip squarely in the eyes, fortunately for him his reflexes were quicker and he managed to save himself blindness.

As Zip ran off to the bathroom, Lara headed for her own private shower room, on the way she caught Winston looking as inanimate as ever.

"Ah, Winston, I'll have a tea in the sitting room please, after my shower, the usual thanks" Lara said politely to her butler.

"Certainly miss croft" Winston replied "Ah, um, would you be wanting in the paper this morning? The Daily mail has an article that I'm sure you would find most interesting"

"Oh, um, yes thank you Winston" Lara said.

Lara very much doubted that anything in the news these days would interest her; she was not interested in all the politics nonsense. When she did settle herself into the living room to find the Daily mail awaiting her, she lazily flicked through it. However eventually, something caught her eye.

_Dangerous Tomb Excavation in Southern Egypt is Astounding Historians_

_Cleopatra , 69 BC-30 BC, queen of Egypt, one of the great romantic heroines of all time. _

_She is of course famous for being the last true Pharaoh of Egypt, after she died the land became a part of the Roman Empire. Cleopatra tried desperately to keep Egypt pure, after she failed to do so, she took her own life. However this is not all to be said about her end._

_Yesterday a team of American Egyptologists have dug up a fascinating temple that contains the bones of an unidentified human woman that they believe to be Cleopatra herself. She was not mummified and so it is impossible to confirm the skeletons identity, however the temple is littered with hieroglyphic references to the many points of Cleopatra's downfall and some think this was written by the Queen of Egypt herself as a sort of diary._

_Matthew Mason, one of the team investigating this discovery, has his own independent thoughts on the ruins:_

"_The most disturbing new evidence I have managed to find suggests Cleopatra died in a Grotesque ritual performed by herself. Although it is impossible to know exactly how this ritual was carried out, I suspect that it ends with Self-Immolation and is possibly quiet destructive as the tomb we found was destroyed and we think it was from non-natural causes. This is being further looked into."_

_The "Tomb" itself has not been described as of yet, but we know that three archaeologists have been killed in the site itself, possibly by traps that were made to kill ancient "tomb raiders"._

_More cannot be said at this point as the location of the discovery is withheld information; however we will update you whenever more news of this story becomes available. _

It was ironic how the most important thing in the newspaper (in Lara's opinion) was shoved in a small box on page 13.

All of a sudden Lara was excited, this could be her next expedition, and she was certainly qualified for it. The only problem was, the site was private, and she was not recognised professionally. However Lara knew that nothing could stop her, her curiosity was peaked; she just had to get a look at this.

_**3 Days later, in Egypt**_

_**July 18**__**th**__** 2010 **_

The archaeological site was just as Lara had expected, men sitting around in tents, studying rocks. Nobody was going inside the damn thing, not more than a few meters anyway. Typical scientists.

Lara waded her way through the crowd of sweaty people to the actual ruins. When she got there, she squinted, as though not really believing her eyes.

"Hmmm, It's not very breath-taking" Lara observed.

She had imagined the exterior of the Tomb to be much more amazing and fantastical than this, considering what lay inside. What stood before her looked little more than an oversized square of rubble, not even a single obelisk had stayed erect, they had all been snapped in half.

"Ah!" a voice came from behind her "Such a naïve thing to say from such an experienced girl!"

Lara turned around, and instantly frowned at this rude remark. The voice had come from a young man, he looked to be about 25, which was unusual in archaeologists, and he also had a rather strange appearance. His hair was deep black, and styled to one side, his pupils were supposed to be brown, but looked more reddish. However the innocent smile on his face contrasted these almost devil-like features.

For a few seconds there was silence.

"Who are you?" Lara asked impatiently, she didn't like being interrupted in her thoughts.

"I am Matthew Mason, perhaps you read me in the Daily mail?" he said.

"Oh… yes" Lara replied, she was rather surprised that she had already found the man whom she was searching for "You have some very interesting ideas".

"I'm glad you seem to think so" Matthew said, smiling "My colleagues think I'm crazy"

"What makes you think I don't too?" Lara said putting her hands on her hips.

"I suppose you will want to know the basis for my theory?" He replied in a strangely upbeat voice "Well, come on, I will show you what I have shown everyone else".

Matthew led her into his tent, which was the biggest, yet shabbiest, one of all. Lara placed herself on his bed, and was grateful for finally having somewhere to rest her legs. Matthew dug into his backpack and whipped out what looked like a carving.

"Here it is" He said as he threw the thing rather violently at Lara.

She grabbed it in front of her face, narrowed her eyes at him, he had thrown it very hard and yet his expression looked as though he had no idea of the social malfunction that just occurred.

The carving was a tablet, it depicted a naked woman sat in what looked to be a circle lit by torches, she was praying. Lara had seen many things like this in her life, and this looked genuine. She ran her fingers through the hieroglyphs that surrounded the illustration, and read them softly to herself.

_Think, fire will come, Love, fire will come, Pray, fire will come, Blood, fire will come._

_Burn flesh, be eternal, as three, crossing the boundaries, saviour of the kingdom, saviour of the people, paradise._

Lara reread it a few times before finally looking back up at Matthew, who was waiting patiently.

"Where did you find this?" She asked, sounding stunned "In the tomb?"

"No" Matthew answered "I haven't ventured into the tomb yet, nobody has."

"The article said you found the bones of an unidentified woman in there" Lara said.

"Ah" chuckled Matthew "The daily mail, I'm afraid they may have glorified the story a bit. We have never been past the tomb's grand door I'm afraid. That's what we are trying to do, find a way in, the door is humungous, and there seems to be no way through it, it's far too strong to force through."

"It probably needs a key or a mechanism to work, ancient doors are never simple but there is always a way through" Lara explained.

"Not this one" Matthew said bluntly, still smiling.

Lara gave him another stern look.

"What makes everyone so sure this is the resting place of Cleopatra if nobody has been in it?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"It's true we have yet to see the inside of the tomb, but it's clear that this is where Cleopatra rests, the obelisks all say so, and obelisks have no reason to lie" He explained.

"So then, where did you find this?" She asked again.

Matthew looked at the floor, as if wondering what to say next, then he sighed.

"I found it, on the floor inside my tent" He said, smiling sweetly again.

"Excuse me?" Lara said suspiciously.

"That's right, as unbelievable as it sounds, it was just lying there for me, it wasn't there the night before, but in the morning it was" He explained.

There was silence again.

"I know you think I'm mad, Lara" He said.

"I do, yes" She replied "But I don't think for a second that you are delusional Mr Morson, I believe your story."

Lara stood up, and walked to the exit of the tent.

"I'll be keeping this" She explained "If you don't mind"

He nodded and she walked out without bothering to say goodbye.

_**That night**_

Lara snuggled into her sleeping bag. Unfortunately, it was hard to feel sleepy that night, despite it being 1 o'clock in the morning. Her thirst for adventure has not been quenched, she had spent all day circling the exterior of the tomb, and studying the immovable door.

The tent, and the outside, was pitch black. Only the camp fire in the middle of the site was visible, it was a rather scary atmosphere; of course it would take a lot more to scare an adventurer like Lara.

She spent half an hour lying awake, staring at the fire in the distance. Suddenly however, something had moved. She wasn't sure what it was, but something, a black figure, had definitely just moved beside the fire. She sat up in her sleeping bag, and focused around the firelight. Again, she saw movement, then nothing, then movement again. This repeated itself a few times, she was getting irritated, so she pulled herself up and walked to the exit hole of her tent. This gave her a clearer view, and she saw that the figure was not human sized at all, it was much smaller, and it was the shape of a rather large canine.

The next thing she saw made her gasp; a big set of yellow eyes had opened in the distance. They stared at each other for a minute, and then the yellow eyes closed and the small figure seemed to be walking away.

Lara could not go to sleep knowing that thing was out there, she rushed back inside her tent and scrambled through her back pack. She pulled out her twin pistols, her PLS, and then strapped the thing onto her back.

With both pistols in front of her, she ran past the fire to where the creature had walked, she ran for a good amount of time, she hadn't realized in daylight how big the site was. And the PLS was doing little to help her see, as there was nothing to illuminate. Finally, she saw the eyes again, they were still in the distance, this time however, they weren't nearly as far away. She steadied her hand, and aimed her pistol at it. She could have shot it right there and then, but she didn't.

She missed her chance, and once again the creature was off, this time it was running, so Lara fought hard not to lose it. She sprinted and sprinted, however the figure seemed to be getting further and further away into the darkness, and then it was gone, vanished.

Lara stopped in her tracks, and realising she was exhausted, panted hard. She could have screamed in aggravation, as she looked around, she saw only darkness, if she walked randomly she could end up lost in the desert, there was no sense of direction. She decided that since she had run this far, the only place to go was forward, so she walked steadily ahead.

Eventually the light of her PLS met a wall, Lara instantly recognised it as part of the tomb, and she went up to rest against it. As she did, she instantly heard a hissing sound, and her reflexes caused her to whip out her guns. She expected it to be a snake, but after a while, there was still no snake in sight.

Suddenly, the silence of the night was interrupted by the sound of gears. Lara turned on the spot, the bricks on the wall were turning and twisting, they pulled themselves apart until they created a gap.

Lara could hardly believe her luck; the tomb she had been so stressed over had now just opened itself up to her. This was the breakthrough she thought would never happen.

She took a deep breath and slipped herself through the gap.


	3. Over the Bridge

**Chapter 2**

The first thing Lara could see inside the tomb was sand, not an uncommon sight in Egypt, however this sand was not on the floor, it was in the air. Floating about, almost creating a mist, it was the only thing her PLS could show her. It was falling from the ceiling above, and was somehow swept up from the ground. The air inside was different; it felt rough on her lungs, as though it hadn't seen nature in thousands of years.

Two steps in; a crashing sound echoed through the silent corridor. Lara turned around; the entrance had shut, much more violently than it had opened. She shrugged this off; it wasn't the first time this had happened to her.

To protect her eyes, Lara put her favourite pair of red sunglasses on. She waded through the corridor, with her hand on the wall to keep steady as the sand was making it difficult to see where she was going. Suddenly though, she noticed something, the wall, it felt strange, it felt disgusting!

She pulled her hand away instantly, as though she had just accidently touched a boiling pot, then she slowly retuned her fingers to wall. It was fleshy, it was moving very slowly in the same direction Lara was. She shone her PLS to get a good idea of what it was, it was yellow, the same colour as the sand, but it was covered in what looked to be blobs, which was reminiscent of unfortunate skin conditions. It instantly reminded her off one thing, ten years ago in Atlantis, the monsters and the walls seemed to have a flesh theme going on, however she had never bothered to feel any of those.

Again, Lara continued down the corridor, this time with her hands at her sides. It was a long walk, after about three minutes she noticed the ceiling on a slant, it was getting lower as the hallway went on, that's not to say it was closing on her, it was simply built this way. Eventually she got to such a low point that she had to slouch to continue.

Lower, lower, lower. Now she was crouching, making her way through a crawlspace. Unfortunately, the position she was in meant that the PLS was lighting up nothing in front of her, and instead just giving a brilliantly clear view of the floor. When she came to the end of the crawlspace, she saw just what she feared she would see, nothing. The darkness was really starting to chap her hide. On the bright side though, there was no more sand fog, and the air was much cleaner.

She stood on the spot, with her hand on her chin, wondering what to do. She couldn't keep wandering through darkness forever, but on the other hand, turning back was not an option, not for Lara.

She banged her fist against the wall out of frustration.

Suddenly, a torch had miraculously lit up; it was visible in the not-so-far distance, to her left and before Lara had chance to fully take in the surroundings that it had enlightened, an opposite torch lit up. Then another set in front of them came alight, eventually, ten torches were shining, revealing the contents of the room.

The room itself was humongous; the walls were made of big Egyptian bricks, and were decorated with a line of golden plates running across them. The floor was impossible to examine, as it had been flooded with sand. Four pillars were keeping the room in shape, two at the back of the room and two at the front, they seemed to tell stories with illustrations; however they stretched so high up that trying to read it was pointless.

The most eye-catching feature of this room however, was a statue, it towered over the area, it looked to be about 25 feet tall, and it was staring directly at Lara.

"Osiris" Lara said to herself "My, my, you are a big fellow aren't you?"

Osiris was sat on his throne, dressed in robes, which Lara assumed were although it was impossible to tell, as the statue was made of yellow bricks. He had his flail in his left hand, which was resting against his left shoulder, and his hook in his right hand, which was resting on his right shoulder.

Above its head, a stone banner of sorts, was centred, it contained hieroglyphs.

_Fourteen pieces, scattered throughout the land, but whose was the blade? _

Underneath its feet, were mountains of gold and jewellery. It was an ancient tomb robber's heaven, rubies, sapphires, jades, it was a beautiful sight. Lara assumed the statue was designed to stare at the entrance, however as she took a couple of steps ahead…

_Creak_

She instantly looked up, alerted by the sound. The Osiris head was still staring directly at her, it had adjusted itself. She took a few more steps, and sure enough the same thing happened.

"Right then" Lara muttered "Not your usual pile of bricks"

She made herself to the other side of the room, and too the mountains of riches. She had half a mind to snatch a handful of those beauties, but thought better of it, the Osiris head staring at her was hardly a good sign to upset anything.

Instead she forced her way through, so she had a better view of the bottom of the statue. A keyhole was there, with hieroglyphs besides it.

_Good men and women, paradise awaits, the evil souls, will be eaten alive._

Of course, Lara had no key, and so there was nothing to persist with in this room. She took a few steps back, and examined her options. She noticed that there were two doors at both sides of the statue, each with a small sign on their head.

Wondering what to do, she again looked at the banner above Osiris.

_Fourteen pieces, scattered throughout the land, but whose was the blade? _

The right door read 'Anubis, the jackal', the left door read 'Seth, the sha'.

"This must be referring to the story of Osiris's murder" Lara explained to herself.

Various version of this myth have different details but they all use the same basic outline. Seth, Osiris's brother, becomes jealous when Osiris becomes king of Egypt, and so comes up with a rather sinister way of killing him. Osiris is snatched from his welcoming party, by various ways, depending on which version of the legend you are studying, and is locked in a coffin, then chopped into fourteen pieces. The pieces are scattered down the Nile, or across the land, again, it can be a few things, and Seth becomes the new king. It all worked out better for Osiris though, he was much more useful in death than in life, he became the ruler of the underworld, judging people and deciding whether they should pass on to paradise or be destroyed

Lara paused, thinking.

"Whose was the blade? That must be talking about Seth." She finished.

Lara walked through the door on the left, sure enough; it slammed shut as soon as she entered. It didn't matter though; Lara knew her Egyptian mythology, and was confident about her decision.

It was another corridor; thankfully, this one was much more hospitable than the entrance. Torches lit up just as they had in the statue room, and as the hall was thin and small, Lara could finally see everything around her completely clearly for the first time in hours. She was also relieved that the wall felt like a wall, and not a fungal infection.

The tomb so far had been sandy and gold coloured, however this corridor was much more of a dark brown. As she progressed further, the air was becoming hotter, which was a saying something in Egypt.

When she reached the end, she met a shabby looking brown wooden door, it had a nob, but turning it proved useless, so she kicked the wood off its hinges. As the door fell to the ground in front, a sudden rush of hot and dirty air flew into Lara's lungs. She took a big gasp, partly to adjust her breath, and partly because what she saw took her by extreme surprise.

This room was about half the size of Osiris's room, it had two sides that were connected by a rickety rope bridge, on the other side a golden door was visible. Underneath the bridge, was the source of the heat, it was also the first thing Lara saw when she entered the room. It was fire, lots of it. The biggest flames Lara had ever seen, the flames left and right of the bridge reached as high as the bridge itself, the flames beneath it were just low enough as to not scorch the ropes.

It seemed that half of this area was destroyed, and half of it was maintained. Maroon tiles patterned through the walls, however random debris was littered throughout, even stuck to the ceiling from what she could see.

The bridge and fire took up almost all of the room; the two sides of ground were only a few steps long.

Lara treaded onto the first plank of the bridge; this was all it needed to start shaking violently. She could even see the ropes that were holding the planks together were starting to thin. She took light steps, put quickened her pace. Just as she was about 5 steps away from the other side, she stepped through one of the planks and toppled over.

She landed on her face, and her right leg was caught between two splinter lined pieces of wood, it was very lucky that the bridge had not collapsed with Lara's entire bodyweight smashing into one side of it. Nevertheless, it was a sticky situation indeed; her thigh was rubbed hard and painfully as she attempted to lift it out.

_Snap_

This is when the ropes decided to break.

The half Lara was at quickly slammed into the wall and hung off the other side of the fire pit, fortunately, she had managed to grab onto the planks as it was falling. Her leg smacked hard against the hot stone. She yelped in pain as her already injured leg took its second beating. The temperature at this point was unbearably hot, and it took all the strength Lara had to keep her sweaty fingers gripped to the top plank.

Flames were jumping up at her; they burned the bottom of her boots black. All Lara could do was try to struggle her leg out of its trap, eventually, the planks below broke apart, and fell into the flames. Although this freed her right leg, it also meant Lara only had her hands to grip onto things with.

Again, she mustered up all her strength and she pulled herself up again and again, until she finally reached the top. This took the biggest heave of all, but she managed to pull her body over and finally onto the other side of the room.

Her leg hurt, luckily she had packed some medical supplies in her bag pack and managed to heal it up enough for it to be in working condition again.

When she had enough strength, she stood up, then she turned around and looked at the broken bridge. How was she going to get back? There was a keyhole on Osiris's statue, which was now inaccessible. She prayed that the tomb worked in a loop, and that she would find herself back in the statue room via the Anubis door.

Through the golden door Lara came to another hallway, this one was short, and much less spectacular than the others.

As she reached to open the next door, she heard a crack on the other side, something about this sound made her feel very ill, like something had just dropped in her stomach. Still, she pushed the door open.

Darkness, complete black.

Lara sighed and activated her PLS, then took a few impatient steps forward.

_Tick, Tock_

Even though she couldn't actually see anything, Lara knew that the ceiling was odd, it didn't look like it ended, it looked like it just kept going. Perhaps it was an open roof in this room? Although, if that was the case then you would think the archaeologists would have found a way inside.

_Tick, Tock_

Then something caught her eye, it was swishing, it was movement above her, it looked just like the dog she had seen in the camp. Was this the same thing? It must be flying? What kind of creature could it be?

_Tick, Tock_

She suddenly realized her boots were feeling much heavier. She looked down and saw the sand as usual. This wasn't normal sand, it was crawling up Lara's legs. She tried to kick it off herself, but she remained rooted to the spot.

_Tick, Tock_

"What's that noise?" She thought.

_Tick, Tock_

Now it had gone past her thighs and it was up to her stomach. Lara panicked, and tried to swing herself from side to side. This can't be the way it ends, it can't be.

_Tick, Tock_

Up to her neck, Lara's stomach felt like it was slowly being punched by the weight of the quicksand.

_Tick, Tock_

One last tick tock, and now her head was buried. The only part of Lara that was free was her left arm and hand, which was sticking out of the sand in desperation. It was an impossible situation surely though, this would be it.

Actually, this wasn't the end of Lara Croft, she would live.

Someone grabbed her hand.


	4. Shadows and Blood

_**Chapter 3**_

When Lara awoke, she was greeted with an unpleasant stench; it was the smell of rotting flesh.

She instinctively tried to sit up, but found her whole body was numb, her limbs felt like they were being held down by their own weight. Her vision was recovering, so all she could see was a blurred version of what she assumed to be the ceiling of whatever room she was in.

Eventually her sight straightened out, and she could see the dark brown tiles above her clearly. She slowly pulled herself up from her lying position and realised she had been lying on the floor off a dark room. She took a look around, what she saw was sickening.

It was a body, sat up against a wall and burnt to a crisp, steam was emitting out of it and the burnt flesh was flaking off and floating through the room.

Lara jumped up, and whipped out her guns, pointing them in all directions. She shot a few into the wall as to make sure nobody was around, when she was certain, she holstered her pistols and returned to her shocked state.

She slowly approached the body, kneeling down, with her PLS activated. It was the most grotesque thing she had ever witnessed; half of its burnt face was hanging off its head. It looked to be a female, although almost every trace of identity had been burnt off. It had something silver lodged in its mouth.

She got as close as she could, and then backed away out of disgust.

The last thing she remembered was sinking, she was definitely sinking into quick sand, how did she survive?

For a split second she relived the moment she was saved. A hand had grabbed hers, and lifted her out of the death-trap. But who was it? Lara had no idea, perhaps the dog had lead other people in the same entrance? It's possible, she thought.

Then she turned again to the body, she pondered something horrible, had the person who rescued her been the same person to be burned alive? Did a monster do this? But then how come Lara was spared? So many questions.

At the other end of the room was a large brown door, it seemed much more modern than ancient Egypt. Lara frowned as she noticed the keyhole next to it, where on earth was she supposed to find a key in this place? The room was completely empty other than the body.

She felt around the walls, subconsciously hoping to fall through them, when she realised something. The silver object in the body's mouth? It couldn't be? It must be.

Once again she approached the scorched remains, this time she had an unfortunate realisation of smell. She blocked her nose and thought of a way of retrieving the key.

Naturally, the first thing that came to mind was shooting the poor fellow's head to smithereens, so that's what she did. The smell got even worse as the head was blasted apart by the piercing pistol bullets, it's amazing how easy the human head was to destroy, almost as if it was made out of burned paper instead of flesh.

The silver object fell to the floor, and she soon realised it was indeed a very fancy looking key. It was very hot to the touch, luckily Lara had a pair of fingerless gloves in her backpack just in case. Her arsenal was quiet extraordinarily varied.

Through the door, she continued through another corridor, and through another door. She ended up in another dark room, although this one was different, it was filled with black smoke. Where was it coming from? Was it just another nonsensical mystical effect that she had come across on her adventures, or was there fire somewhere? Maybe it had something to do with the burned woman?

A thought occurred to her, perhaps the burned woman died by entering this room, perhaps this tomb leads victims into the palm of its hand and then kills them and leaves behind their corpse. If that was true, Lara was next on the list, and the tomb was more than a tomb, it was something evil, something with a desire to murder and destroy.

Though Lara was hesitant to enter, but she had no other choice, this was the only lead she had, the only way out of the room, so she took her chances. The door slowly closed behind her.

She batted the air as she proceeded, luckily she could see no fire in the distance, which she was sure would be able to show even through smoke as thick as this. She picked up her pace, although still hesitant, as she knew she wouldn't be able to last too long in this condition.

Eventually, she found her way through, and the smoke seemed to thin out, although she still couldn't see anything.

"I've been waiting for you, Lara"

_Bang_

Immediately, Lara shot into the darkness, at what looked to be a black figure. She assumed it was a female from it's voice. As the bullet passed through this person, she evaporated into the smoke, as if she had managed to teleport.

Lara was sick of waiting around, finally she had found the culprit of this nonsense, and she ran forwards to where the shadow had been.

_Bang Bang Bang_

Shooting ahead of her as she ran, eventually the smoke in the room seemed to die out entirely and she saw that she was approaching a golden wall, then she looked down, she could see the floor.

As she was studying the room, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, but these were no ordinary footsteps, they were faster and lighter than human footsteps.

Suddenly Lara was thrust from behind, the force against her back was too great, she fell onto the ground, and heavily smashed her jaw on the floor. She had no time to whip out a medipack, she could feel the claws pressing deep into her and a great set of teeth ripping apart her backpack.

She instinctively flung her arms over her shoulders and attempted to grabbed the creatures neck, it yelped as it struggled to tear its way through her clothes.

Lara was certain this was a dog, and she was certain it was the same dog that had lured her into the tomb in the first place, but who was that woman? Is it that she can shape shift? Lara had seen many strange things in her life, and it wouldn't surprise her to meet some kind of werewolf.

Man against dog, Lara started to strangle the ferocious canine, but it was too late, it had already ripped through the back of her shirt and was clawing full force against her back.

Lara screamed in pain as the dog gasped for air, eventually the dog started coughing up its own blood, she could feel the blood pouring down her sides and eventually greeting her face as it trickled across the floor, she wasn't sure whose it was.

The claws slashing against her back began to slow down, and eventually the creature became entirely limp, it collapsed next to her.

She rested on the ground for a while after that, gritting her teeth from the pain, feeling drowsy from the blood loss. Would she end up passing out again? This is the toughest tomb she had been in for a while, she had ended up on the floor more than she needed too and it was becoming almost hellish.

Lara had limits, she wanted to get out of their as soon as she could.


	5. The Dark Woman

_**Chapter 4**_

The pain was unbearable.

Her jaw and lip had started to swell, making her face very uncomfortable, and her back stung fiercely with no sign of healing. She couldn't bend her neck backwards, but she didn't have to to know that there were claw marks all over her shoulders and spine.

She turned her head, which was still pressed against the floor, and saw that beside her, was the remains of her medical pack. The dog had ripped it to pieces, along with everything else in her backpack. Tears of anger and frustration were building up in her eyes, as she realised how much trouble she was in.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't get up, it would be too much pain for even lara to bear, with a back as destroyed as hers. Even so, she was determined to stay conscious, the last thing she wanted was to wake up somewhere else.

"I've been waiting for you"

It's that voice again; the same one that called out to her before, but no matter how much Lara frantically looked around, nobody was to be seen.

"Where are you? Show yourself!" She said with all the energy she could muster.

_Pop _

Seemingly out of nowhere, a woman had apparated in front of Lara's eyes, a safe distance away but close enough to scare her. She was wearing a long elegant white dress, gold jewellery, black hair, piercing eyes.

"Lara… you've been a… very bad girl"

Lara struggled in her attempt to roll over and escape, but it was hopeless.

"My… my dog is dead because of you"

As she said that, her eyes became darker and more focused, and she started a slow walk towards Lara.

"Who are you?" Lara asked in a hushed, yet extremely aggressive tone.

The woman only continued to stare into her, as if she was a child examining a small animal.

"Who are you!" Lara raised her voice.

She was panicking, was this the woman behind everything? This mystical witch? Was she the one that burned those poor people?

_Patter, Patter, Patter_

Lara looked to the right, and what she saw made her hands automatically shield her face. It was a dog, another dog?

She looked back to the right and saw that the suffocated body of the creature was still there.

Just then, the surviving dog walked slowly up to the dead one's body, sniffed it, and started howling at the ceiling.

"There there Naku, there there" The woman comforted it as she rested its head on her lap "We all have to go sometime, we do, it's just your mothers end came… quicker than it needed too"

As she said that, she gave Lara a look that was half blaming, half pitying.

"You did this" She said in a calm quiet voice, as she patted the dog's head "You killed Naku's mother, do you feel bad about killing?"

Lara didn't answer; she was too in shock by the whole scenario.

"Ahhh" The woman said as if she realised something "You don't do you? You do this all the time, yes."

Lara could only raise an eyebrow.

"You're a… you're a murderer" She said as her eyes lit up.

"Who are you…?" Lara repeated in vain.

The woman simply shook her head.

Then she approached Lara and bent down, she pulled a cloth out of her dress, the cloth seemed to be wet, as though it had already been damped in something.

Then the woman slid it across the wounds, Lara grit her teeth preparing for some serious pain, but was instead greeted with a feeling of relief across her back. The stinging seemed to numb entirely, as though she had been drugged.

"It doesn't hurt now" The woman said, as if informing Lara.

Lara saw a chance, she now had the ability to move, and she was not the type girl to take anything lying down. As the mysterious woman bent further over her, Lara whipped onto her sides, building up enough momentum to kick out. However, as she did, her leg never actually hit anything, she just felt it fly through the air and land on the ground.

She performed a cartwheel as the quickest way to hoist herself off the ground, and within a second she had whipped her guns out.

The woman, who was at her side just a second ago, was now a distance away, smiling at her. This time however, she wasn't wearing the long white and red dress, it had changed into a much more revealing golden two piece, her jewellery was now incredibly loose around her arms, but they never fell off, her necklace had become a golden chain. She looked dangerously beautiful with her bronze skin against her golden attire.

Lara extended her arm, pointing her gun at her target, but the woman seemed to be one step ahead, she had disappeared from her spot and almost instantly reappeared right in front of Lara's pistol. Before she had time to pull the trigger, the woman knocked the gun out of her hand with her palm, and then grabbed Lara's elbow, twisting it into a painful stretch.

With her free hand, Lara threw her fist into the woman's face, but she ducked and tackled Lara's waist, pushing here hard against the wall.

Lara felt her hands fly up above her head, out of her control, as if an invisible force was pulling her, she then felt the cold texture of steel around her wrists and ankles. She had been captured.

Struggling wildly, she threw her hands and legs backwards and forwards as a hopeless sign of protest.

"You don't know who you're dealing with" Lara said roughly, with a look of extreme hostility on her face.

The woman turned away from Lara, and brought the back of her hand up to her lip.

"Violent, hot headed, angry, unlikeable, ferocious, filthy, murderous…"

She seemed to be muttering insults to herself, but Lara could hear her.

The woman nodded to herself, as if to confirm something, and then turned around to face Lara once again. There was silence for about 30 seconds, as they stared into each other's eyes, Lara looked into the woman's eyes with hatred, the woman looked into Lara's eyes with great interest.

"Are you going to try and kill me?" Lara asked, sick of not understanding the situation.

"You are unworthy of this world" The woman said "… but unfortunately it is not I who will make that decision"

"So you're just a sort of Yankee, who's the real boss around here?"

The woman raised her hand into the air, and clicked her fingers, Lara felt something around her body change, as she looked down she saw that she was now dressed in white robes similar to the ones the woman was wearing before, Lara's however were much less royal. This one covered less skin than the woman's had, which was usual for a lower class in ancient Egypt, the dress was shorter and the top half of the dress was made of thinner material and was ripped to her cleavage.

"Oh come now, is this really necessary" She asked.

"It is necessary for you to look acceptable; the gods do not favour uncleanliness"

Lara withheld a comment on the fleshy walls she had encountered when she first entered, it was pointless carrying on this petty conversation anyway.

"Come"

Lara fell of the wall, back onto the floor, she immediately fixed her posture, although she was still chained.

"What makes you so sure I won't try to escape?" Lara asked.

"You can't" She replied instantly.

The truth is, the woman was right and Lara knew it, the fight she had just a while ago had shown her to be almost invincible, and just the fact that she had the confidence to have Lara walk on her own shows she isn't afraid of anything Lara can do.

The woman started walking, so did the dog, who was attached to Lara by chain.

"Osiris will feast on souls once again"


	6. Cleopatra's Anguish

**Chapter 5**

The woman and the dog were now completely silent as they led Lara to her doom, only the chains and Lara's clanky footsteps could be heard, the woman seemed to make no sound at all with her steps, as though she was simply gliding across the floor.

Lara had never felt so powerless, she started questioning herself, she had always thought of herself as an incredibly powerful and strong woman who could get out of any sticky situation, but here she was, no guns, no freedom of movement, she was at the absolute mercy of the Tomb, and couldn't do anything about it. The idea that she could fight any sort of magical power, was all that an Illusion conjured by her athletic ability and heavy fire-arms collection. This was going to be a true test of what Lara could do.

The Egyptian woman pressed a panel on the wall, and a long, giant and grand staircase fell from the middle of the other side of the room. The sound of raging gigantic flames could be heard and Lara immediately became terrified. As she looked up at the staircase she saw that it led directly up through a gigantic fire pit, possibly the very same one she had crossed earlier.

"NO!" She yelled, pulling at her chains "You can't kill me that easily! I won't go there, I won't!"

But she had no choice, the dog and the woman seemed deaf to her protests and had complete control over her. She was yanked up the steps, her body started to heat up, and she started to panic.

Luckily when the Egyptian woman reached the midpoint, she signalled with her hands for the fire to split and it did. As they walked between the flames Lara's body became hotter and hotter, she felt like she was going to faint, her vision blurred hugely, and she felt herself slip into a deep dream.

* * *

I was praying, on my knees in the temple, when it happened.

Octavian was invading Egypt, my entire kingdom, my empire; it was crumbling before my very eyes. Children screaming and running through the sand, getting killed by blood thirsty roman warriors, it isn't right. Why did all this have to happen?

My husband, Antony, he is kind and gentle, he is lovely, he wouldn't hurt an innocent fly. But he can get angry, he has always been like that, hitting the servants, hitting me, he is just argumentative like that. But why did he have to provoke the Roman empire.

We always laughed at Octavian, he never seemed to be anything special, the only reason he really was ruler of Rome is because he is the descendant of Julius Ceaser. "You owe everything to your name" Antony used to tell him, and it was true, but it should have gone unsaid.

Egypt was going through hard times anyway, there was an extra large famine last year, our defences are incredibly weak. And Octavian, being the small little man he is, saw the opportunity.

Here I am sitting, safe, hidden in my monument, complaining about losing my heritage. Out there, I can practically hear the screams in my brain, my kingdom, it is being destroyed, ripped apart, Egypt is over, the Romans have won.

"Please my lord, Please" I said looking up at the towering Osiris statue "Why have you, the ruler of life and death, frowned upon us, why have you destroyed my... our, kingdom?"

After receiving no answer, I hung my head and looked at the floor. Was all of this temple stuff, was it all nonsense? Were the teachings, the gods; was it all fantasy stuff that wasn't real? The truth is, I had never felt any kind of supernatural experience, I had never felt blessed by the gods, and did they even exist?

My eyes began to tear up, but I didn't want to let them fall, so I gripped onto my tattered skirt, and closed them, trying to distract myself.

_BOOM!_

My shoulders jolted at this huge crashing sound that echoed through the room. I quickly jumped to my feet and turned around.

"NO!" I called out instinctively, thinking the Roman soldiers had found me. I backed into a wall scared to death, my heart going at a painfully fast pace, all the sweat I had left in my body seemed to be crying out of every inch of my skin, and all of my hairs on my arms stood up. I panted fast.

"My lady!"

I didn't recognize the voice, so I called out.

"Who?"

Four of my guards came rushing in the room, which I was immediately offended by as I had asked to be in private, then I realized they had a bloodied man on their back, this must be something urgent.

"What do you want of me? I can't do anything, find a doctor!" I said angrily.

They placed the man on the floor in front of me, he was impaled in the chest with a grand dagger.

"NO!" I screamed "NOOOO!"

My dearest husband, the love of my life, laid there twitching, his eyes barely open, half of his body seemed to be almost melting into the pool of blood.

"Antony! Nooo!" I wailed and then threw myself by his side, sobbing into my hands "It can't be! Please, don't! Don't!"

He looked up at me, his mouth was twitching but struggling to make a sound.

"_C-c... Cleo... Cle" _

"Antony, Please, I love you"

"_I l-, love, v-, y-" _

His eyes which were focused on me, dropped to the ground and deadened, his jaw which was previously struggling, now fell into a relaxed position. The hand that I was holding, lost all support of his arm, and slipped off me and onto the ground.

"I will... I will avenge you, Antony" I said, letting the tears stream down my face "I will avenge you."

The walls of the tomb collapsed, the floor disappeared, the whole scene was set alight, destroyed by fire.

* * *

Lara gasped as she was threw back into reality, she felt like she had just received a powerful punch to the gut. The black smoke surrounding her faded and brought her back to the flaming room with the Egyptian woman and the Dog.

What she had just seen... it was Cleopatra, during the Romans conquer of Egypt, and she was there, she was Cleopatra. Was it a vision of a past life? Lara waved away the idea as soon as it hit her mind, the woman she was a second ago was not her, it did not have her soul, her mind, she was much weaker willed.

But even still, somehow by walking through the fires she had been given a vision of the past, was it an important even somehow? I mean, of course it was, it was Rome's concuer of Egypt, but what did that have to do with the situation Lara was in now?

She thought for a bit and then realized something, the statue Cleopatra was praying to, and the Osiris statue, was the same one in the room she first entered in this tomb. The one that moved, the one that looked at her, the one with treasure at its feet, and the one with a mysterious keyhole in its throne.

As Lara began to put certain things together she was led out of the pit of fire room and into the dirty hallway she had previously came through.

And what about this woman, Lara thought. Was she Cleopatra? Was she a ghost? It wouldn't be surprising; she had seen stranger things in her lifetime, and Cleopatra certainly had reason to abstain from the afterlife.

With that thought, the group had made their way to the Osiris statue room, and just as Lara thought, the Egyptian woman pulled out a key from the pouch dangling around her waist, and inserted it into the keyhole.

At first, nothing happened. But then...

_Creeeeaaaaak_

Witha slow Creaking noise, Osiris lifted himself of his chair and stood upright, Lara now understood why the ceiling was so tall.

"Stand back" the Egyptian woman said, prodding Lara backwards.

Osiris used the hook her was carrying to grab the handle at the back of the chair, and then slided it to the left, covering up the Seth door they had just entered through, but also revealing another small door where Osiris was sitting. It looked a bit odd that such a small entrance way was hidden behind such a massive statue.

The hallway they entered was incredibly dark, it was only partially illuminated by very weak fires that lined the top of the corridor, Lara could only just see where she was going. As she looked around she noticed that she couldn't actually see the walls that should be surrounding her, she was actually in a prison hallway, walking past the cells. It was impossible for her to tell what was in them, because a great shadow lingered behind each set of bars, so nothing could be seen. Just as Lara was wondering if they were in fact empty she heard a voice.

"_She is not one of usss"_

A serprant like voice hissing from the shadows shot chills up her spine, as she closed her eyes she heard more voices from other cells.

"_She is whole" _

"_She is in flames" _

"_She has disturbed him" _

"_She is lost in purgatory"_

It was all too confusing, Lara gritted her teeth and carried on being pulled forward; absolutely sick of hearing this talk that didn't make any sense to her.

They continued to walk down the prison corridor for half an hour, by the end the hissing had gotten so loud Lara was on the verge of screaming.

The Egyptian woman opened the final door, and what lay beyond, would change the world forever.

**AC:** Hope you enjoyed it! And I'm sorry it took a while for this chapter! It took a long time to figure out exactly what was going to happen basically, there were so many different versions of this chapter it's unreal, but I'm happy with the final result.

Sorry if you think it was a little boring with all the descriptive writing, I know you feel like you don't really need a boring-ass tour of the entire tomb but you need to know that the tomb itself needs characterizing, remember everything you see, because it will make sense later and will help you figure out what is going to happen next.

Really excited to write Chapter 6, I've been building up to this and preparing for it since Chapter 2, it's going to be very action packed! =D

Thanks for reading


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